Droid for Doctors

I've benefited from this website. so i guess its my turn to contribute.

I recently switch from Palm Centro to Motorola Droid. I have been with Palm for about 8 yrs and know the system by heart. It was hard to let it go but syncing problem with Windows 7 even with bluetooth and lack of support for software made me switch.

This review is from the perspective of a doctor or medical personnel

Pros:
-Now has Epocrates ( just the free version).
-Skyscape has a bunch of medical textbooks on Android. Skyscape applications need a separate program called Palm classic for Palm Pre
-Can use push email for work ( microsoft exchange) and yahoomail.
-Great graphics to show patients when explaining diseases.
-GPS is very good and comparable to a garmin.
-Camera has flash. good for sending to a dermatologist for a diagnosis
-Larger than Centro but about same size as older Palms. not a dealbreaker
- Has a touchscreen ( in contrast to conventional Blackberries). The other one i considered was blackberry tour but it didnt have wifi
-Access to Hospital portal , my hospital uses Horizon portal

Cons:
-No solid notepad. I have notes from residency that i like to glance at once in a great while. There's Gdocs but i have concerns about privacy with online access since i put sensitive info on my notes.
-Sanford guide for antibiotics is not available on Android.
-Generally dont like slideouts/ moving parts but Droid feels solid.
-Difficult sync as i had to transfer contacts and calendar to google then droid

Palm desktop is dying by the wayside. It was an excellent system and dont know why they didnt support it. I still miss Palm desktop's simplicity and quick pull up of information. But Droid is an acceptable replacement. Theres a learning curve but do-able for a low tech type person like myself.

I'm a first year md student and am hoping that the next few years are going to prove that android is just as capable as any other pda out there. I definitely love that epocrates is now available and the wifi/portal access is great. Not to mention, how sweet the display is. I've used it to look up in class ppts (w/ doc2go) and actually take notes on it. It's only a matter of time I think. Let me know if you find any other useful apps to get.

Yea I've been testing out the full version of documents 2 go and it might be just what you need. I don't know if your files would be compatible, but if you could change them to a word or pdf file, that would be a good option for you. I might read the files as is, but I doubt it.

I can't help but be concerned with some of your statements...
> -Camera has flash. good for sending to a dermatologist for a diagnosis
> -Access to Hospital portal , my hospital uses Horizon portal

While technically sound remarks - you should speak with your IT representatives. There are limitations with respect to how you can use your capable phone in medical (and other policy-rich) environments. HIPAA requirements will have an impact how you may use your new toy at work. Breaking this policy can get you (and your organization) in some hot water.

Evernote works well for notes, but it syncs to the cloud and I'm not sure that's something you want to do with medical information. The windows version supports encrypting portions of notes, but it's not supported on android yet.

Thanks for the info on Epocrates availability. I installed it and registered after about 5 failed attempts. Now it works fine.
I have to agree with what was said above. Putting pt. information on a personal device is probably against your facility's pt. confidentiality policies. Imagine if you lost it, or someone gained access to it.
Regards,
Scott